


Where we are

by TheDancingOcelot



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Bad spoon days, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Oh well. Good enough, References to Depression, The middle and end of this wrote themselves, They end up fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-26
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2019-03-09 15:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13484052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDancingOcelot/pseuds/TheDancingOcelot
Summary: It's not alright. Until it begins to be. They might get used to it.





	Where we are

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a really slow writer holy fuck. Here have this little piece that came out of nowhere and escalated until it could. I fixed Vulcan being destroyed because, come on, that wasn't necessary. Also. Gaila did not die and you can try to pry this from my cold dead bones.  
> Enjoy!

Jim has bad spoon days. Lots of them. He mostly just soldiers through them and takes closure where he can, like petting a library cat that decides to sleep on his lap as he works on his projects for classes or researches things through the database that interconnects most libraries in the world. He could do this from his dorm, true, but then he wouldn't have the kitty warming his thighs and headbutting his belly for pets.

The campus is well arborized, great, big, fruit bearing trees planted across the green areas, sometimes when he's not feeling like being indoors he’ll bring a blanket and spread it under a tree and do his the written part of his projects there, sometimes he'll just climb up the branches with a satchel containing old fashioned, printed comic books, his phone and wireless earbuds and chill up there until he feels like climbing down.

Then there's the days he just doesn't have enough energy to leave the dorm. He'll just complete the coursework on his bed, the vr glasses leaving indents on his temple from when he decides to lay on his side as he dictates his notes and pays attention to the live classes playing. Sometimes he sleeps through them, but they're recorded and he watches them later if he feels like he needs it.

Leonard helps him through it, same as he does when Leonard himself begins to crash because of exams, shifts, losing a patient, and other things, he's aware of Jim’s moods with foods, so he works with him through there. He leaves fruits within sight on their shared kitchen, all in separate bowls because it's just easier to know what is what then, inside the fridge the pack of carrots is easy to spot right when it's opened.

There are enough sweets on the dorm to feed their sweet tooths 10 times over, Leonard's is bigger than Jim's, he practically inhales the vitamin gummies, and the myriad of other homemade sweets stored in the cupboards. One would think being a doctor would make him wary of sweets because of diabetes, but the sweets are comfort food, and he's careful with the intake of them anyway.

Jim doesn't get in as many fights as the campus population are led to believe, but when he's excited or distracted about something he tends to get quite clumsy, running into walls or stumbling on his own feet, Leonard has to admit it's really cute, even if he once had to treat Jim for a light concussion because the other fell and hit his head on the couch. Also, these things tend to happen indoors, where only Leonard can see him and share his excitement. He understands then that Jim is letting himself be vulnerable near him because he actually trusts him.

They have built this sort of codependency, they're closer than best friends, not quite brothers because there is some kind of other connection there and definitely not lovers, because that would be tacky and still not exactly what they are. They began sharing a bed after they learned that the weight of Leonard's arm across Jim’s belly helps him with his nightmares without making him feel trapped, sometimes they feel like kissing and Jim doesn't really have any kind of sexual interest on anybody else, regardless of what they say about him, Leonard understands him, and feels practically the same way, so kissing and cuddling ensues.

Jim likes to go on hiking trips, mostly on his own, Leonard understand that he usually does this for closure and asks that he just takes a tracker if things go sideways, Jim smiles at him and accepts, knowing about Leonard's problem with getting lost in the woods.

Leonard likes to drive through the city when he has too much on his head, just drive until he's tired or bored enough to go home and watch a movie until he sleeps on the couch.

Their coursework is heavy, they're both on the way to finish it in three years, but the Academy is accommodating of it's students needs and allows them numerous ways of completing their required credits, besides offering psychological support and other things. For a paramilitary organization they're pretty worried about the conditions of their students and officers.

They spend their breaks all over the world, some of them with Leonard's daughter, some not, they go camping, Jim teaches Leonard rock climbing and Leonard teaches Jim how to surf, they both teach Joanna how to ride horses and they end up doing various cheesy couple things complete with pictures and trinkets they use to decorate their dorm.

They get better. They help each other and convince each other to see professionals about their mental healths. It's easier than they would have thought, but then, now they have each other to support and the emotional labour can be shared.

They decide to get married by the middle of their third year, just when they're done with another bunch of exams, if anything, they reason, it'll ensure that they end up in the same ship, as per regulations. They do it without much fuss, they sign the papers online and submit them to the academy, within a week they are granted a change of dorms to the building where married folks live, if they want it, they decide not to take it because their arrangements are good until they finish their courses.

Gaila learns that they're married and decides that it warrants a party, she asks if she can invite some friends from her engineering course when they tell her to not overdo it and it ends up being a pizza party plus movies with people that are their friends too, Leonard sits close to Jim while they eat to make sure he's comfortable. Jim ends up not eating a lot of pizza, but happily devours popcorn and other snacks while they're watching the original version of a movie called  _ Priest _ that's more than 200 years old with the lights off and Leonard is cuddled with him and he keeps teasing him that the villain of the movie looks like him and they totally should buy him some fake fangs, Gaila mentions that Leonard would make a way hotter vampire because of his accent and manners, succeeding on making him blush and Jim cackle at his grumbles of being surrounded by children with the hots for supernatural beings.

Nearing the end of their third and final year shit hits the fan. Jim changes the parameters of a simulation, that wouldn't even be a big deal except that it was designed by some uptight person that wants to see Jim expelled, almost everyone else congratulated him on his different thinking but they decide to hold a academical hearing anyway even if they all are aware that the most it'll happen is that Jim will receive some kind of punishment for hacking the servers.

They receive the distress call from Vulcan. The accuser is Vulcan and ends up being the officer that handles the sorting to the ship they're designed and he doesn't want to let Jim get in. Pike intervenes. It all happens just in time that they can save the planet but the bastards head out to Terra. They lose most of the fleet, Pike is captured, Jim is made into Acting Captain after he gets marooned on Delta Vega and returns with a brilliantly crazy engineer that was also there and they manage to blow the other ship into oblivion.

They give him captaincy of the ship. Pike is proud of him and tells him so, he and Spock, the Vulcan that pressed charges against him, have a screaming match and end up friends after he makes the other see the flaws in his way of thinking (after he uses an analogy to explain that if he keeps thinking that the sole motive they're born is to die, then he'll never accomplish anything in life and his life has no meaning then he should look for psychological help because those are clear signs of depression and then Spock’s mouth clicks shut and he nods, as if he's going through a catharsis.)

They are granted leave while the ship is retrofitted, he and Leonard use the time to know the crew better, to visit their friends that ended up in the hospital and mourn those who didn't make it. Gaila is transferred to the  _ Enterprise  _ after she recovers, the Academy declares a Memorial and they have their own private ceremony to honor the lost ones.

By the beginning of the next year the ship is ready for it's maiden voyage, Spock seems more at peace with himself, especially after he meets with his contemporary from another timeline, Uhura and Gaila are practically joined at the hip, Leonard makes it his life mission to look after their resident 17 year old genius because  _ dammit, Jim! Kids shouldn't be allowed to pilot spaceships! _ , Scotty ensures that the engines are at their peak efficiency besides making some improvements to their machinery and is always a friendly ear that'll happily tinker through one rambling at him and occasionally offer advice or, if he doesn't have any, a sandwich, they all attend Ben and Hikaru’s marriage before their first trip and Jim uses his time to sleep off his injuries and adrenaline with Leonard, learn about his crew and tinker with Scotty.

Four years ago if someone told him that he'd get his shit together, be married and, earlier than that, that he'd be captain of the Federation’s flagship, he would have laughed on their faces and ask them if they were on drugs.

Now, as he looks at his life he is truly happy with what he sees and knows that he can make the difference he always wanted to make.

**Author's Note:**

> At some point on this I thought "sense? what is that? oh the thing that I just defenestratated? my bad"  
> Did you like this?  
> Sorry for the typos, please tell me when you find them because 1- I don't have a beta 2- I don't really like rereading my own works


End file.
